February 24th, 994
Pinkie Pie fidgets nervously as she double checks for the third time her list of items to bring. Rarity had told her that Doug preferred things simple, but how could she not go all out for their first date? She checks the cake that is baking in the oven. It could use icing, but that should normally wait until it finishes baking. Normally. This isn't a normal occasion at all!
Pinkie Pie holds up the tube of icing in her hooves; she quickly double checks the cake inside for the fifth time. Nope, still no icing on it. Good. She slowly puts down the tube; there is a good reason one shouldn't bake while this excited. Pinkie sighs; maybe she should just follow Rarity's advice, and keep it simple. Or Rainbow's; she suggested some sort of physical activity. Maybe she could try her hoof at hoofball? Or buckball? Hmm, she didn't know if Doug plays buckball. Did she know how to play buckball? Pinkie checks her notes; nope, she doesn't know how to play buckball yet. There has to be something they could do together!
Fortunately the oven timer dings, breaking Pinkie Pie out of her trance. She rushes over, pulling the cake out of the oven. She can finally decorate her masterpiece! She pulls out the tube of icing, thinking hard before carefully maneuvering the tube. She then violently jams the tube into the middle of the cake, depressing the entire tube of icing inside. Perfect!
The cake finished, Pinkie Pie moves around the kitchen, collecting the various confections and items she will need on her upcoming date. She pronks outside, making her way out of Sugarcube Corner and towards one of the open fields in Sweet Apple Acres. She waves at the various mares she passes, though few show nearly the same amount of enthusiasm she feels.
Pinkie spots Doug sitting in the field, his back against one of the nearby apple trees. He is just sitting, watching the sky, and Pinkie peers up. Not seeing anything out of the ordinary she pronks a little closer; his head briefly turns at the noise and Doug smiles at seeing her. One arm comes up and waves, "Hey Pinkie! Pleasant day, isn't it?"
Pinkie Pie smiles, pronking the rest of the way to him, "Yuppers! Sooo, what'cha looking at the sky for? Are you looking for something falling? Normally when something is falling my tail gets all twitchy, but you don't have a tail, so how else are you supposed to know something is falling? Ooh, is it an apple? Is an apple going to start falling?"
Doug shakes his head; Pinkie shudders - she can see his smile getting a little more forced. Her ears flatten against her head and her mane slowly deflates as she walks the rest of the way. She drops her saddle bags on the ground and flops down next to him. She looks up as his hand caresses her mane, a worried look in his eyes. "Pinkie Pie? Are you doing okay?"
Pinkie Pie shakes her head, "I wanted this date to go perfectly, and I can already tell I'm just making a foal of myself. How can I call myself the premiere party planner pony of Ponyville when I can't get a party with just the two of us to work?"
"Well, what if it didn't have to go perfectly? That's the whole purpose of dating, right? To find out things about each other, what the other person likes and dislikes. I mean, you would need to be clairvoyant or omniscient if you wanted every party to go perfectly."
A strange look comes over Pinkie's face as she smiles, "I like the sound of that; so, how do I become omniscient?"
Doug laughs, "I think you're taking that the wrong way, but I dunno, maybe you have to ascend to be an alicorn? Your Pinkie sense would get turned up to eleven then, right?"
Pinkie considers, moving a hoof to her chin. Her mane is slowly becoming more normal as she replies, "Hmm, alicorn... alicorn... alicornication? You know how to become an alicorn? My Pinkie Sense isn't telling me, and I haven't seen it before, so I don't know what would happen before that. Probably a doozy of a doozy of a shudder, followed by a tail twitch, then another doozy of a shudder?"
Doug laughs, "See? I think this date is turning out just fine, even if you didn't predict every moment. So, what kind of cake did you bring?"
Pinkie gasps, holding her hooves up to her mouth, "I didn't know you were psychic! You knew I brought a cake! You must know how I can become an alicorn!"
Doug shakes his head, "No, Pinkie, you literally bring a cake to everything. Every single time I've seen you, you either have a cake on hoof or you pull one out of somewhere it shouldn't fit."
Pinkie Pie shrugs, "Well, being predictable some of the time just makes it harder to predict you the rest of the time! So, did you want to start off with the cake or did you want to just eat cake?"
Doug smiles, "Let's start by taking a look at the cake, alright? I hope it isn't too sugary."
An offended look crosses Pinkie's face, "Hey, cake baking is serious business! Besides, you can't knock a cake until you've polished it off!" She reaches deep into her saddle bags, pulling out a six inch chocolate cake devoid of icing. "Ta da! Do you like it?"
Doug scratches his chin, eyeing Pinkie Pie suspiciously, "It looks like chocolate, and I do like chocolate. So, what's the surprise?"
Pinkie giggles, "If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise, now would it?" At Doug's shrug she pulls out a large knife. Doug watches as she takes nine slices along the top of the cake, each half an inch parallel to the last. She licks the knife off and places it next to her saddle bag, pulling out a fork and two plates. She hoofs one plate and the fork to Doug while putting the second plate on the ground.
"So, the first section is just chocolate and cake, so that piece is mine. Next up is a bunch of the activities I was hoping we could do together!" Pinkie slides away the first slice of cake to her own plate, then pushes open the next piece, showing a picture drawn in cream frosting. The two of them are sitting next an apple tree, cutting up a cake. Doug looks closely; he can see in the cake a picture of himself looking closely at a cake. A worried look goes over his face as he backs up, shaking his head. Pinkie asks, "So, if you want to do the activity, just take the piece of cake! Then, once you finish that slice we can do that activity and then move on to the next one! So, do you want to finish the whole cake?" She smiles, winking at Doug and lapping her piece of cake into her mouth.
Doug grins, taking the knife and pushing the piece of cake onto his plate. The remainder of the cake conceals the next picture, merely showing a few balloons shaped like Pinkie Pie's cutie mark. He sets the knife back down, taking the fork and spearing a corner. He slowly lifts the piece up, eyeing it before opening his mouth and setting it on his tongue. Pinkie looks more and more excited, though the deliberately long wait is starting to get to her. Doug slowly chews, his mouth curling up at both the taste and Pinkie's increasingly energetic antics.
Somehow, Pinkie managed to bake a rocky road ice cream cake, even though he hasn't told anypony his favorite ice cream flavor. The cake is just cool enough to not melt but also warm enough to not mess with some of his fillings. He smiles, quickly swallowing and going for another bite. Between bites he says, "I don't know how you did it, Pinkie, but you did it again." Pinkie Pie's smile grows wider than her muzzle as he finishes the slice. He looks over at her, "So, that was a picture of us sitting here eating cake. What happens next?"
Pinkie Pie grins, "Well, we'll just have to move on to the next piece!" She takes the knife, sliding the next section out from the rest. It shows a picture of the two of them, laying on the ground. Both of them are raising a limb, pointing at the clouds moving across the sky.
Doug looks up; he can barely make out the teams of pegasi bringing in the clouds for the next few days. He smiles, looking over at Pinkie Pie, "I think that looks like fun too." He takes the piece, eyeing the picture again, "I do hate ruining an amazing work of art like this though."
Pinkie Pie shrugs, moving over next to him before rolling over onto her back, "It's made to be eaten, and hurry up! We don't have all day here!"
Doug smiles, rolling his eyes, "We have the rest of the day to spend together, Pinkie, hold your horses." He takes a bite of the next piece, the light cream still just as delicious. Pinkie Pie frowns; she doesn't care for his choice of words, she has been very careful not to insinuate anything improper! Although that last piece... he must be psychic! Or it's one of those weird human expressions. Who knows sometimes? She sure doesn't!
She looks over as Doug finishes the piece, a smile on his face. Maybe he really didn't mean anything by it, but he should be more careful using naughty words like that. Pinkie Pie snuggles closer, looking up at the sky. Doug's arm rests underneath her back, rubbing her mane as she lifts a hoof to the sky. "Ooh! That one, that one looks like an apple!"
Doug smiles, "That one looks like your mane!"
Pinkie pouts, "They all look like my mane! No fair!"
Doug smirks, "What, because your head is in the clouds?"
Pinkie mock glares at Doug, shaking a hoof in his direction. The two go back and forth for several minutes, trading light barbs with their comments on the various clouds moving along the sky. Eventually Doug bows to Pinkie's superior cloud describing ability, looking at the cake. He pulls off the next slice, showing a picture of Doug sitting underneath a tree. He is sitting with his hands covering his eyes. Pinkie can barely be made out, hiding in the branches above him.
Doug looks over at Pinkie, "Are we playing hide and go seek in this one?"
Pinkie Pie nods, "Yup! I'm the bestest at hide and go seek, you can run but you can't hide!"
Doug smiles, reminiscing about fond memories of playing hide and go seek in his youth. However, upon looking around, he sees maybe two hiding spots, if you count the tree they are currently sitting under. He takes the piece, moving it onto Pinkie's plate. She looks a little dejected as he says, "I think that's a fun game, this just isn't the place for it. Definitely when we can get the foals playing." He winks at her, messing her mane a little as Pinkie vacuums the slice up.
She pushes the next slice, showing Doug and Pinkie sitting next to each other. Music notes appear from the trombone Pinkie is playing and from Doug's head. Doug smiles, lifting the cake slice to his own plate. "You know, I always could sing, but I was always so self conscious about it."
Pinkie smiles, "Really? Most ponies just go with the flow, letting the music take them. You've probably seen us performing musicals in Ponyville! It's probably the most musical town in Equestria!"
Doug shrugs, "Well, I guess I haven't spent enough time in Ponyville to notice. That or the ponies just shy away from me too much. Anyway, what kind of songs do you know?"
Pinkie Pie's grin grows, "Oh, you're going to love this one! It's all about smiling!"
Pinkie Pie goes over the lyrics to her Smile song, Doug picking up the chorus fairly quickly. He pauses frequently, though, every time he misses a note or feels like he is singing off key. Pinkie snuggles up next to him; he can match her pitch much easier than he can sing on his own. She smiles as his confidence slowly grows, managing to finish a run through without stopping. She remarks, "We're going to have to sing way more often, that was a lot of fun!"
Pinkie moves over, kissing Doug on the lips. She smiles at the contact, moving back while Doug runs his hand through her mane. After a few minutes of sitting together Pinkie gets up, grabbing the next slice of cake. She places it on one of the plates and brings it over. Doug takes the plate, turning it around to look at the picture. He pauses; "It's blank. Just a white wall."
Pinkie nods, "Yup! This one, you get to choose what we do. So, what'll it be?"
Doug ponders for a moment before grinning, "What kind of sports balls do you have in there? I'm curious if ponies can catch things."
Pinkie considers, moving over to her saddlebags. She pulls out a basketball sized blue ball, a hoofball, and a few balloons. Half of Pinkie Pie disappears into her saddlebags as she delves deeper. Doug idly spins the plate in his hand before a large smirk comes over his face, "Pinkie, how much do you care about this plate?"
Pinkie's head pokes out of the other bag, "Um, not at all, really. They're like five for a bit."
Doug's smile grows larger, "Alright, Pinkie, have you ever heard of a Frisbee?" At Pinkie's head shake he pulls his arm back.
Pinkie gasps, "That doesn't mean you can just break them!"
Doug ignores Pinkie, hurling the plate up and away from him. He immediately starts sprinting way off to the side, no where near where he threw the plate.
Pinkie exclaims, "Hey!" as she runs directly after the plate. It seems to stall in midair before hurtling towards the ground, aimed almost directly at where Doug is running to. He grabs it with both hands before skidding to a stop.
Pinkie looks at him in amazement as Doug tosses the plate from one hand to the other. "Man, I played a lot of this back in college. Now, let's see if you can do it!" He moves over to Pinkie Pie, kneeling down while holding out the plate. "First off, catching. It won't do any good to throw this back and forth if we can't catch it safely. Now, the easiest grab for a human is called the pancake grab. Take your two hooves, push them together over the plate as it comes towards you, using your chest as necessary."
Doug scratches his chin as he appraises Pinkie Pie, finally remarking, "So, we have both of our hands free, since we don't have to support ourselves with our front legs. I know I've seen you walk around like that, so hopefully you can move around quickly as well."
Pinkie smirks, standing up on her hind legs. She starts rapidly dancing, pulling a cane our of her mane and spinning it around. Doug gently tosses the plate at her; she gasps, letting go of the cane and moving her hooves towards the plate. She manages to get both hooves on the plate but they aren't centered on each other. The act of moving both her forelegs together and focusing on clutching the plate to her chest proves too much, the pink mare toppling over. Doug applauds, "You caught it! Very good!"
He offers Pinkie Pie a hand, helping her get up and taking the plate from her. She grins as she stands back up, "I've got it this time, ready!" Doug tosses the plate towards Pinkie and she grabs it, giving him a large grin. She gives it an underhanded toss back to him as he moves closer.
"Hmm." Doug ponders; how exactly does Pinkie, or any pony for that matter, hold things in their hooves? "So, for a human, we kind of grip the disk with our fingers. The distance and control we get when we throw comes from both rotating the disk, which we do by flicking our wrist, and from rotating our arm around the elbow and shoulder." Doug demonstrates by moving his arm, but doesn't release the plate. "You could almost say that humans were designed to throw things." Doug looks over at Pinkie's body, her four legs tucked underneath herself as she sits next to him. "I have... no idea if any of that will work for you."
Pinkie moves over, grasping the plate in her hoof. She frowns, frustrated at the lack of control she has. She can pick it up, but any attempt to move the plate from one side or the other just causes it to flop around, still held firmly in her grasp. She rapidly moves her foreleg up and down, trying to get the smooth motion Doug demonstrated earlier.
Doug claps his hands, distracting Pinkie but not causing her to lose her grip. She looks over as he says, "Wow, that's a lot better than I thought you would be able to do! Now, you just have to let go! Don't worry about trying to spin the plate, just try to lightly toss the disc up into the air, then be ready to catch it when it comes back down."
Pinkie smiles, moving her foreleg up into the air. Her first attempt doesn't release the plate at all, and she frowns as her second attempt releases the plate after her hoof came to its apex, causing the plate to just drop to the ground. Fortunately, Doug is watching closely next to her and he deftly grabs the plate before it can hit the ground. He smiles, "Good job, it's all about timing. A lot of humans have trouble with this too."
Pinkie takes the plate from him and tries again. Her third try is a success, the plate lifting several feet into the air before coming back down, caught one hoofed by Pinkie. Doug starts, "Great job! Now, for the spin, you-"
Pinkie smirks, "Like this?" as she flicks her hoof, tossing the plate fifteen feet into the air with a healthy amount of spin. She leaps up, grabbing the plate with a hoof before coming down and throwing the plate at Doug. He barely manages to get his arms up as the plate hits him in the chest, grabbing it before it hits the ground. He smiles, slowly backing away from Pinkie and throwing the plate back to her.
The two go back and forth, happily throwing the plate between them until it becomes too dark to safely run around. They head back to the cake, still three pieces and an end remaining. Pinkie starts clearing some grass while Doug takes the next piece onto the other plate. He looks at the depiction of him and Pinkie sitting near a campfire, looking up at the stars. They are cuddling together, Pinkie resting her head on his shoulder.
Pinkie moves over, "You might want to eat the next one too, I don't think we'll want the interruption." Pinkie has finished setting up the campfire and gets the next piece, a depiction of Pinkie talking and Doug looking fearful. "This one is us sharing scary stories! How about it, huh? Huh?"
Doug smiles, petting Pinkie's mane, "I think I would prefer the first one, honestly. You can have this one." Pinkie gives a somewhat sad smile but takes the piece, scarfing it down in one bite. She moves over, having not licked the icing from her lips, and presses them against Doug's. He returns the kiss, icing smearing across his face as Pinkie moves down to his chin. She ends up resting her head on his shoulder, mirroring the picture as the campfire crackles.
The two lie on the ground, just looking at the stars before Doug asks, "So, does Celestia light the stars at night as well as move the moon and sun?"
Pinkie nods into his chest before her tired reply, "Yup. She arranges the stars, too; sometimes she'll make pretty pictures, but the astronomers get mad at her if she leaves it different for too long. Not that they'll ever say that to her, everypony knows she's just trying to make her sister happy."
Doug takes a few seconds to respond, "Luna?"
Pinkie nods again, "Princess Luna, yes. They were supposedly really close, back before she changed to Nightmare Moon, but that's all just legends now. It was about a thousand years ago, I think."
Doug says, "I suppose that's when your calendar starts, then. Nine nine four. Nine hundred, ninety four years ago when she started ruling by herself. Wow."
Pinkie continues, "Yup, and she has done a pretty fantabulous job of leading all of ponykind while raising the sun, moon, and stars. Now, enough about her, you see any constellations you recognize?"
Doug frowns, "Well, unfortunately I can't really make out the stars well enough, there's a bit too much blurring. I never really studied the stars either, so outside of the Big Dipper and maybe Orion I would have a hard time picking any constellations out."
"Ooh, the Big Dipper sounds fun. What's that one like?"
"Let's see, there was a box of four stars with very few other stars nearby. The 'handle' of the dipper was around four stars, and if you followed those stars it took you to Polaris, the North Star, which was remarkable because while the rest of the stars slowly rotated around the sky Polaris only rotated a very, very small amount. It stayed in place, and also pointed north, so if you could find Polaris then you knew which direction you were going."
Pinkie moves her head back up, kissing Doug on the lips. She licks a bit of the icing off his face before going for another kiss. As they break away she says in a soft voice, "I know which direction I want to be going," as she hoofs the last slice of cake to Doug. He smiles as he takes the piece, though his smile slowly fades as he looks at it. It shows Pinkie laying on a bed, looking backwards. Her hind legs are coming off the bed where Doug is standing, his hands resting on her flanks.
Doug looks over to Pinkie, who is smiling at him, waiting for his response. He asks, "Are you sure about this?"
Pinkie takes that as her cue to move up to him again, pressing her mouth against his and sliding her body across his chest. She slowly moves her head to the side, licking his cheeks before whispering in his ear, "I don't think we need the bed," as Doug takes a bite of the cake.